Mumbai Seize over, three terrorists killed in Taj

The 62-hour siege of old Taj hotel ends with the NSG killing three terrorists who were holed up inside in one part of the hotel. NSG said they are now sanitising each and every floor.

TV grab ..... Picture of an unidentified terrorist released on news channels involved in the terror attack in Mumbai on Saturday.

Indian Officials say number of people killed in Terror Attacks rises to 195 and "still counting"

Terrorists had plan to blow up Taj

Times of India NEW DELHI: In a sensational revelation by Times Now, terrorist who was caught alive had confessed to investigating agencies that they had a plan to blow up the Taj Mahalhotel in Mumbai. The terrorists had enough explosives to blow up the Taj hotel. Sources have told the TV channel that they wanted to reduce the life-size building of Taj hotel to rouble. They also believed to have told about their plan to replicate a ‘JW Marriot’, happened at Islamabad, to the Mumbai hotel. In a sense to destroy the symbol of financial strength of the country and send shock-waves all across the globe, the terrorists wanted to do a 9/11 in India. The above revelation came from the 21 year old Azam Amir Kasav, who hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Pakistan's Faridkot. On Wednesday-Thursday night Azam and his colleague opened fire at CST before creating havoc at Metro and then moving on to Girgaum Chowpatty in a stolen Skoda, and where they were intercepted by a team from the Gamdevi police station. Azam shot dead assistant police inspector Tukaram Umbale. But in that encounter Azam's colleague was killed and he himself was injured in the hand. He pretended to be dead giving rise to the news that two terrorists had been killed. However as the 'bodies' were being taken to Nair Hospital, the accompanying cops figured that one of the men was breathing.

Deccan Mujahideen: The new name in terror

HYDERABAD: The word Deccan - corruption of the word dakshin or dakhin - immediately conjures up the image of Hyderabad.But the police in Hyderabad say that they have never heard of an outfit called "Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan,"- that has claimed to have carried the operations in Mumbai- ever before. "We haven't come across anything of this sort before," director general of police of Andhra Pradesh S S P Yadav said. "No central or state intelligence agency has ever mentioned that to us," Andhra Pradesh home minister Jana Reddy added. Analysts who are experts at picking cues from phrases and communications however feel that there could be an indirect connection of the militant group that carried out attacks with Hyderabad. "After Hyderabad was integrated with the Indian union in 1948, there was large-scale migration from the Nizam's state to Pakistan, the UK and the USA. It is possible that elements involved in the operation had some of their ancestors hailing from Hyderabad and they are using the name to connect with their original homeland," a senior police officer said. Other analysts pointed out after 1948 not only did the issue of Kashmir reach the United Nations, but even the Nizam in his last days had sent a team to the same agency seeking an independence for Hyderabad in the aftermath of the Independence of India and its Partition. Intelligence officials said that they knew that there were elements in Pakistan who still were not reconciled to the incorporation of Hyderabad to India. "We know it for a fact that in 2004, Jaish-e- Mohammad militants led by Maulana Masood Azhar had in one of their conclaves in Pakistan had decided to focus on the issue of independence of Hyderabad. What we see today is probably an assertion of this point of view," the intelligence source said. He added that with Kashmir now at the centre stage, militants want to open up another contentious issue and hope that it would have some emotive appeal. Along with Kashmir and Hyderabad, Junagadh's accession to India had also been challenged by some. But Junagadh is a small district in Gujarat and its potential for generating emotive appeal amongst ex-Junagadhi's abroad is little. Other analysts who believe that Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan "is real and not a red herring" said that nothing called Indian Mujahideen had also been heard till the rash of terror attacks in the country in the last few months. "But it was found that the term denoted the emergence of home grown terrorists and that was proven with the arrest of many educated merchants of death. The same could be the case with Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan," the officer said. Director general Yadav however parried questions and tried to deflect the issue saying that the term Deccan denoted Deccan plateau and could denote any place between Pune and Hyderabad. Analysts however ruled out the direct connection of any present Hyderabad citizen with the militant group because the attacks bear the stamp of a high motivated and trained foreign agency. "The most that we can see is that local underworld elements in Mumbai may have helped in the landing of the militants in the vicinity of Gateway of India. This is not the job of any local Hyderabad trained ultra," a police source said.

Terrorists used hijacked vessel
The Hindu

MUMBAI: Even as special forces continued to battle the terrorists, investigators have been working to piece together the sequence of events that led up to the massacre that started on Wednesday night.
Based on the continuing interrogation of arrested Lashkar terrorist Ajmal Amir Kamal, investigators believe the 12 terrorists who left Karachi on a merchant ship hijacked a fishing boat to facilitate their final assault on Mumbai.
According to Kamal, the group hijacked the Porbandar-registered Kuber to avoid detection by Indian Navy and Coast Guard patrols, which had a considerable presence in off Mumbai.
While one group of terrorists used the hijacked boat to land at Sassoon Docks on the eastern coast of Mumbai, a second group used a fibreglass lifeboat to row west to the Cuffe Parade fisherman’s colony.
Before leaving the fishing boat, the terrorists beheaded its captain, who Gujarat authorities have identified as Balwant Tandel, from Una village in the Union Territory of Diu. There is no word on the fate of the remaining crew of five.

Top professionals, businessmen killed in five-star carnage

Times of India

As the smoke cleared from the two south Mumbai hotels and the commandos secured these properties, friends and family were confronted with the
painful task of identifying the dead. While the Taj hotel's casualty list is still not available, the names that emerged from the Oberoi confirmed people's worst fears. The list included well-known names from Mumbai's business and social circles. Yes Bank's non-executive chairman and co-promoter Ashok Kapur, businessman Sunil Parekh, developer Pankaj Shah and solicitor Anand Bhattwere among those found dead at the Oberoi. Kapur's body was found on the 19th floor of the hotel on Friday evening. He had gone for dinner to the hotel with his wife Madhu, who managed to escape. Kapur owned a 34% stake in Yes Bank along with the bank's MD & CEO Rana Kapoor. Sunil Parekh, a businessman with shipping interests, and his wife Reshma, were also among those killed at Tiffin, the coffee shop at The Oberoi. Uma Garg, wife of Ispat Industries' executive director (commercial) Vinod Garg, was found dead on the 19th floor. She had come for a dinner meet with her husband and a team of foreign clients. Vinod Garg, however, managed to escape on Thursday. Shah and Bhatt were dining with another developer, Apoorva Parekh, at the Kandahar restaurant in the hotel. Parekh survived, but has been admitted to the Breach Candy hospital with several bullet injuries. Solicitor Bhatt, who was at the same dinner, is a senior partner with Mumbai-based law firm Wadia Gandhy. He was admired in legal circles for almost single-handedly, and quite democratically, bringing the law firm out of a slump.